P5 Year Group – ‘Toasting Marshmallows at the Firepit’ – 13 March 2025

P5 Forest School – 13.03.25

Today I lead three forest school sessions for each of our P5 classes. The session was around the new school firepit area and was held at the Ballyclare Primary School’s sports field. The weather was calm, bright, sunny and cool in the shade…a perfect day for lighting a fire!

 As a group we established the rules around the firepit are – no running, walk around the outside of the circle before entering into seat and do not enter the fire pit area until invited to do so.

 Warm up task: We discussed the danger of fire and the importance of fire safety. The P5 pupils were taught about the fire triangle and were able to draw upon their knowledge from their recent NIFS visit and their Early Man topic work from term 1.

 Fire lighting – The pupils were shown how to generate a spark using a flint fire lighter on an oven tray with cotton wool as ‘fuel’. Pupils then came into the fire circle to try this in groups of six – three kneeling on each mat. This was a challenge for some but when the children ignited the cotton wool there was great excitement!!

 The children then attached a large skewer to a stick using duct tape and got to toast marshmallows over the fire pit. Quite a few children had never done this before so a new and exciting experience was enjoyed. 😊

 To finish off, two P5 classes read their recently completed Charlie and the Chocolate Factory stories from their Narrative Writing books around the crackling fire. One class brought down their silent reading books and enjoyed some reading time.

 We finished off the session by recapping the fire triangle and fire safety. Some sticky hands and faces needed wiped with baby wipes too! A fabulous day all round!